Lux Eco Resorts Story

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My story on eco lodges is up at ForbesTraveler.com (MSNBC.com and the Today Show’s website also picked up the story). This article focuses on high-end resorts with an eco angle, from environmental conservation to light-on-the-land building techniques to the embracing of local culture.

Going green is not a new concept in the world of travel. For decades, resorts like Maho Bay in the U.S. Virgin Islands and Turtle Island in Fiji have demonstrated that eco-awareness and sustainability can coexist with tourism. But in the past five years, the “eco” buzz has been amplified within the travel industry—and throughout popular culture as well.

If you’re going to spend the cash for a lux getaway, you might as well do it with some conscious. This Top 10 list includes resorts with thatch-roofed huts on a beach to cabins afloat on raft foundations in fjords. Their structures are influenced by sources as diverse as Robinson Caruso and Renzo Piano.

Stephen Regenold is Founder of GearJunkie, which he launched as a nationally-syndicated newspaper column in 2002. As a journalist and writer, Regenold has covered the outdoors industry for two decades, including as a correspondent for the New York Times. A father of five, Regenold and his wife live in Minneapolis.